Explain What Is Meant by the Term ‘Statutory Interpretation’ and to What Extent Does This Compliment or Undermine the Role of the Parliament?

Explain what is meant by the term ‘statutory interpretation’ and to what extent does this compliment or undermine the role of the parliament?

Statutory interpretation refers to a process used by the courts when it looks at a piece of statute to interpret what its definition is. A statute is a bill also known as a law which was passed by the legislature (Parliament) that imposes rules on people. However these ‘statutes’ may be open to interpretation and are occasionally are riddles with ambiguities. So statutory interpretation is the process that focuses on resolving these ambiguities and deciding how a particular bill or law will apply in a particular case. Some statutes have a very clear and straight forward meaning to them and therefor interpreting them incredibly easy, but in many cases there can be ambiguities and vagueness in the wording of the statute that the judges must try and resolve for the sole purpose of stopping and absurdity occurring. Courts can only interpret the law they do not question the origins or the reason. There are numerous rules when it comes to statutory interpretation, the first and most important of these rules is the rule that governs and deals with the statutes plain language, the rule is essentially the statute means what it says, For example if the statute refers to vehicles it would be interpreted as vehicles not planes or submarines. This is known as the Literal rule and it looks at the statute in its natural and ordinary meaning in its context. The advantage and disadvantages to using this rule is that it does encourage precision in drafting laws, well unless the Legislature had any reason to be deliberately careless. it also is meant to bring a certain sense of certainty, however there is no certainty when It comes to something like literalism so can that really be the case?, It is next to useless when a judge is trying to interpret an act where broad terms have deliberately been used however the fact remains that the...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...StatutoryInterpretation Task
R v Clinton and Others [2012] EWCA Crim 2
In the case of R v Clinton, the appellant and his wife were both on prescribed medication because they both suffered depression and at that point the husband was going through financial difficulties and stress at work. His wife need timeout form the marriage and they agreed to a trial separation for four weeks, she left the children with her husband and moved into her parents’ house. The appellant did not cope well with this, and started looking at suicide websites. His wife came back weeks later and told him she had been having an affair, he asked her to come to the house so she could tell the children the marriage was over herself and she agreed. He had arranged for the children to be somewhere else on the day she was coming and was drunk. When she got to the house he beat her on the head several times with a wooden baton and then strangled her with a belt, later on he took pictures of her body and sent them to her lover.
Some amount of interpretation is needed when a case involves a statute. Statutoryinterpretation is when the court interprets and applies legislation to a case, this comes when there is conflict in a case. There are rules that are used as guidelines when interpreting statutes; the literal rule, Golden rule and the mischief rule. The literal rule is where the court will give words...

...STATUTORYINTERPRETATIONWhat is the aim and why is it necessary?
StatutoryInterpretation is there to help judges with general words Parliament has passed, as some words can have different meanings.
* Words very often have more than one meaning i.e. they can be ambiguous
* A broad term may be used in a statute which can give rise to confusion and uncertainty
* There may be errors or omissions when the statute is drafted
* New developments in society can make the words used in a statute out of date and they may no longer cover the current situation rule courts will give words their plain meaning, even if the result is not very sensible.
* Words are an imperfect means of communication
Literal Rule
* Under this rule words are given plain and ordinary meaning.
* The rule developed in the early 19th century and has been the main rule applied ever since then.
* It has been used in many cases even though the result has made nonsense of the law.
* This is illustrated in Whiteley v Chapell (1868); where the defendant was changed under a section which made it an offence to impersonate ‘any personnel entitled to vote’. The defendant pretended to be a person whose name was on the voters’ list but had died.
* The court held that the defendant was not guilty since a dead person is not, in literal meaning of the...

...other aids used in statutoryinterpretation which the judges could use to help them arrive at a decision in each of the appeals. You should also pay attention to judicial precedent and assess whether the case that the appellants wish to use may be binding on the Court of Appeal.
This case study will investigate how certain rules or aids in statutoryinterpretation can affect the decision of an appeal in court due to the different circumstances involved in a case. There will be three main cases that will be discussed in order to gain an insight into how different rules used in law; such as the mischief rule, literal rule and golden rule can affect how certain legislation can be interpreted within various cases. It’s important to consider judicial precedent and how it can influence the decisions made by a judge in a court of law, along with looking at the way in which laws can be misleading due to the way they are worded and interpreted by an individual.
When looking at statutoryinterpretation it’s vital to understand that some statutes can be straight forward and have a simplistic meaning, however this is not always the case as there can be confusion over the true meaning of various statutes; words can become ambiguous, meaning that there can be misperceptions made about whether or not individuals are right in their appeals. When in court it is usually the...

...Cape Law
Evaluate the rules of interpretation which guides judge’s in the interpretation of statutes or acts of Parliament and the presumption they applied in this process.
To gain an explicit and profound competence of statutoryinterpretation and rules of statutoryinterpretation, they are few key elements and definition that must be referred to these concepts. Statutoryinterpretation is a source of law, which means, where laws are taken from to aid in the decision making process by the courts, and this is how the courts apply and interpret the legislations or acts of Parliament within a situation or a court case. To aid in the Courts’ application of the law, rules of statutoryinterpretation have been created; they are literal rule, golden rule and mischief or purposive rule. These are rules used by the courts to interpret the meaning of an Act. They are necessary because the meanings of an Act can be unclear, among other things, and these “rules” are used to make a judge’s task of reaching a clear understanding of an Act, much easier.
I must point out that interpretation by its very nature is creative and not something you can view with specifics and in one way but with the view of conceptualizing the dynamics that interpretation itself...

...STATUTORYINTERPRETATION
TOPICS:
Preliminaries
Rules and approaches
Aids to interpretation
Impact of EU and HRA
PRELIMINARIES
Statutoryinterpretation is the way by which the parts of a statute are interpreted in order to understand whatParliament might have intended by passing that particular statute.
Statutes are not user friendly. They are written in technical form and not too easy to understand (ambiguity). The words used in statues may have different meanings which indicate different results. Moreover, the literal meaning of statutes may not be capable of dealing with every circumstance (London & North Eastern Railway Co v Berriman). This is why statutoryinterpretation is necessary.
RULES AND APPROACHES
The basic constraint or norm involved in interpretation is that, judges cannot interpret statues in a way which fail to reflect the intention of Parliament; they ought to give effect to the intention of Parliament. Tindall CJ in Sussex Peerage Case (1844) said, “The only rule for the construction of Acts of Parliament is that they should be construed according to the intent for the Parliament which passed the Act.”
But this single rule gave birth to several distinct rules. It is not always possible to catch the intention...

...﻿What is meant by the term ‘gothic’?
How far and in what ways is ‘Frankenstein’ a gothic text?
Gothic literature, which is sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre that links horror and romance into one tale of ‘transgressing the boundaries’. Gothicism was unheard of until the late 1700’s, this movement into a new genre of literature. This was pioneered by the English author Horace Walpole, in his famous fictional book ‘The Castle of Otranto’, or as Walpole alternatively titled it ‘a Gothic story’. Horace Walpole himself had transgressed the boundaries slightly; by introducing this new style of writing he had added a whole new genre into literature. Walpole’s style of writing was unique and captivated the readers mind and imagination to let he or she share the act of transgression, or as Robert Kidd, a renowned critic put it, “The Gothic has somehow seduced the reader so that he or she is complicit in engaging in whatever he or she might encounter”. This is what kept Gothicism alive, the author’s ability to intrigue the reader and give them a thirst to read more gothic literature.
The term Gothic has been viewed as very different things over time. Gothicism came about at a very tumultuous time, after the fall of the Roman Empire, a time of raw and uncontrolled exercise of physical power. The Goths were a barbaric tribe...

...Project one
What is meant by the term equality?
Equality can mean different things to different people; some people believe that equality means treating everyone the same. However you can not treat everyone as equal due to the fact that everyone has different backgrounds, life experiences, skills and knowledge. So no two people can really ever be the same. Individuality can be a positive attribute in all aspects of life. Equality can be more accurately described as when people are given equal opportunities giving them access to the same rights, choices and resources no matter of their gender, race, age, sexual orientation, religious belief or cultural differences.
What is meant by the term discrimination?
Discrimination is often seen as a negative attribute when actually it can be a positive. Being able to identify the difference for example when the milk has gone off is seen as positive discrimination. It is only when there is a degrading comment attached against a person, group, or race that it turns into negative discrimination. This often happens when there is seen to be one stronger person, group, or race within a culture that identifies a differences between them. Discriminations can be more than just degrading comments. If it is of a cultural pattern it can stop people being given the same rights, choices, and opportunities. Discrimination can happen...

...
Drawing on accounts by Lyn and Harry in Learning guide 5,4 (Task A). What can be learned from their experiences to help health and social care respect service users identity?
This essay will establish what identity is and what can be learned from the experiences from Lyn an
d Harry's accounts in Learning guide 5's Audio activity. It will also look at the work of Berger and Luckman, and Goffman's work on concepts of 'stigma' and ' spoiled identities' which explores stereotyping.
What is meant by the term ' identity'? This could be answered from many perspectives. Philosophers might be interested in the individual and shared qualities that define someone as a human being with a sense of self. Psycologists have similar intrests in studying identity as a process by which people distinguish themselves from others and present themselves to the world. They are also concerned with explaining how people aquire and maintain their identities. Biologists could point to the unique DNA patterns in genetic make up that are expressed in physical appearance, which can mark people out as different and, for example,enable the identification of criminals through analysis of forensic evidence or used to settle paternity disputes. Sociologists, by contrast, are more interested in the relationship between identity and society, and studying he collective identities of, for...